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Strive Masiyiwa

Charity Ruzvidzo Business Reporter
ECONET Wireless chairman and founder, Strive Masiyiwa has been named among the 10 most powerful men in Africa for 2015 by Forbes magazine. Forbes is an influential American business magazine which features original articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics.

The reputable publication also notes outstanding people around the globe who distinguish themselves in different fields.

The 10 most powerful men in Africa list is unique in that it identifies African men who are innovative, courageous, daring and often disruptive in their fields.

It highlights African entrepreneurs, corporate executives, social entrepreneurs, political and civil leaders who are changing the continent and the world around them.

Some of the leaders on the list include Victor Ochen from Uganda, Moustapha Ben Barka from Mali, Oscar Onyema from Nigeria, George Weah from Liberia and Simphiwe Tshabalala from South Africa.

Masiyiwa’s Econet is a diversified telecommunications group with operations and investments in Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific.

His business interests also include renewable energy, water treatment, Coca-Cola bottling, financial services and hospitality.

Masiyiwa serves on a number of international boards, including the powerful Rockefeller Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Advisory Board, the Africa Progress Panel and the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board for Sustainable Energy.

As a philanthropist, Strive Masiyiwa and his wife Tsitsi Masiyiwa are members of the Giving Pledge and finance the Higher Life Foundation, which provides scholarships to over 42,000 African orphans.

Locally, Masiyiwa provides financial support to hundreds of academically gifted students under the Joshua Nkomo Scholarship Fund sponsored by Econet.

The facility caters for high school and tertiary students.

The late VP Nkomo, popularly known as Father Zimbabwe, was very instrumental in assisting Masiyiwa to get a licence for his mobile telecoms enterprise in the 1990s.

In 1998, the World Junior Chamber of Commerce named Masiyiwa as one of the 10 most outstanding young leaders of the world.

In 2003, a CNN Times magazine poll named Masiyiwa as one of the most influential business leaders in the world. In 2014 Fortune Magazine named Masiyiwa one of the 50 most influential business leaders in the world.